Removal Order

our mc and co. are getting deported yay!!

Egypt 

Chapter 1: Removal Order 

Kaiga Byõ 

Why? 

 

“Why do we have to move to Valhalla?! Just because the war is getting worse??” I complained to Haoyu while I paced around the room. 

  

Today was supposed to be like any other day: wake up, go to school, come back, and spend time on the internet. Maybe Haoyu would drag me out to do something and then just restart the day after lying in bed. 

  

But instead, I woke up to find a piece of paper in my brother’s hand. A very important piece of paper that would change everything. I walked up to Haoyu; I didn’t catch his expression. I was too tired and too focused on that paper. 

  

“What’s that?” 

  

“A Removal Order. It was sent to the whole town,” he said, sounding upset.  

 

 

“Wait... 

 

A what?!” 

 

“A Removal Order, Kaiga.” 

  

Yeah, that would change anyone’s life. And that’s how we ended up here. 

  

“This is wrong! They can’t expect us to give up our whole life just like that! Haoyu, we can’t let this happen.” I was not having it. “Why should I move from the arguably good part of this world to the not-so-arguably worst part?” 

  

Right then, Yūki walked in from the foyer, speaking in her as-always well-mannered and calm tone. “Kaiga!” Okay, maybe not calm. “You cannot say that! Just because the people living in Valhalla have different customs from us, we can’t say that Earth is better.” She reprimanded me instantly�"not even a good morning first�"but I understood what she was saying. 

  

“I-I’m sorry... I’m just stressed out. Isn’t there anything we can do to stop this?” I turned to Haoyu for some hope that there was a workaround, but it seemed like these two had already had plenty of time to think things through. 

  

“Don’t think about it in a bad way, Kaiga. Valhalla is a beautiful place. And the whole town is going with us!” Haoyu argued in a surprisingly optimistic tone for someone getting practically deported. 

  

“How are you making it sound like a good thing? We won’t have internet!” 

  

“That’s great. Maybe your dead brain cells will recover.” 

  

“Hey! I can’t argue with that, but you don’t have to say it out loud.” Why do I even try? Talking to him was useless. “Yūki, where did you go? Help me figure out a way to overthrow this unjust Removal Order.” 

  

And talking to her was useless too. After all, they both used to live in Valhalla�"and they even chose to move to a town right next to the border. 

I’d been there for a month myself, and it was easily the worst month of my life. The weather was harsh, we had to do everything ourselves, and there was barely anything fun to do.  

What was the point of living through sadness in life if you weren’t having fun? And if that seemed selfish, that’s because it was. 

  

I turned right and climbed the stairs right behind my sister as she tried to convince me that the place she admired so much wasn’t that bad. “You’re overreacting. Sure, you’ve been to Valhalla before, but you’ve only seen one small place. Valhalla is as big as Earth, if not bigger.” 

  

“I know that much, but I’ll probably never see it, so what’s the point?” 

  

“About that, we’ve been thinking: if you won’t go to school or have a conventional job, you’re always free to travel the world. Well, not now, of course. You’re still only 14�"but in the future, you can start fulfilling your dream earlier!” 

  

‘In the future.’ Those words rang through my ears until they settled in. They had already accepted it. What did I expect? We’re a small, disposable town in a big war... there was nothing else they could do. Yūki didn’t interrupt my thoughts; all I could see on her face was sullen acceptance. 

  

Haoyu stepped in, still smiling, but his optimism was toned down now. “Kid, it’s okay. The whole town is coming with us. You won’t lose anyone important to you.” 

  

And he’s right�"I wouldn’t lose anyone, but... there was a part of me that knew my dream would never come true in Valhalla. But no matter how many excuses I had, I needed to accept it too. There was no stopping this. 

  

“When are we leaving?” 

  

It’s time to give up on my dream. 

 

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The stars are pretty tonight. I wonder if you could see the stars like this in Valhalla. Last time I was there, the sky was covered with clouds on a lucky occasion. The rest of the time, you couldn’t look up because of the snowstorms. And yet, that’s not the reason I don’t want to go there�"well, maybe just a little. 

My dream, my goal, the one thing I truly looked forward to, is now gone. Ever since I turned 10, I was sure that I would travel the world without worrying about stability: To see Earth with my own eyes, to travel around places I’d only see online, meet interesting people, make a few friends, and one day come back here. Where it all started. I just wanted to have fun. Staying in one place at this time and age is really boring once your childhood ends.  

Yūki thought I could still do it, but it’s impossible. 

 Once we move to Valhalla, we can’t move back to Earth. If this country is willing to throw us out because of the war, then why would they ever accept us back? 

Travel in Valhalla? That's even more impossible. Not just because they have no cars or airplanes�"or much less technology�"and that place is full of strong creatures and people. Someone as weak as me could never even dream of going around that place. But Yūki or Haoyu wouldn’t understand. 

“What’ cha up to?” Haoyu climbed up the roof with ease and looked at me through his messy white hair. 

“Nothing much, ya know. Just the last day we see the stars!” 

“Oh, stop being dramatic. We’re not dying, we’re moving.” He made a good point. “Remember Kaiga, Earth is just one half of Thanais, Valhalla is the other half.” sat beside me, looking up at the sky. 

“You wouldn’t get it, Haoyu. You and Yūki are way stronger than me. If you wanted to travel around Valhalla, you could!” 

“We’re not stronger than you, you’re just… way younger.” I could hear the lies in that sentence from here.  

“You two can shoot Lightning Rods!” I said, getting up abruptly. “Yeah, I am dramatic, but I can’t shoot lightning rods, so I deserve to be.” 

I could tell Haoyu wasn’t giving up, but I was definitely wearing him down. 

“Look, Kaiga, I know you don’t have supernatural powers, but you need to stand up for your dream.” Haoyu looked straight into my eyes with a look I’ve never seen on his face before. 

“You sound unusually serious...it’s kinda unsettling.  

He took my hand and placed a gun in it, out of nowhere. “No matter how scary that might be, fight for what you want.” 

I looked down at the gun. It felt good in my hands. Maybe the fact that it looked very expensive played a part in that feeling. What does he even expect me to do? 

“Well, goodnight! Remember to sleep early; we’re leaving for Snake’s Border tomorrow along with the town. We can’t have one person dragging us back.”  

“...Tommorow? wait!”  

Haoyu jumped down from the roof, leaving me with an idea and a half that I wasn’t going to commit to. 

“Scary? …It is.”